WASHINGTON  President Bush has determined that Bolivia is no longer cooperating in the war on drugs, placing it on a counter-narcotics blacklist along with Venezuela, as U.S. ties with the leftist Latin American governments plummet.

The two nations -- Bolivia for the first time and Venezuela for the fourth year in a row -- were found to have "failed demonstrably" to meet commitments to combat the production and trafficking of illicit drugs, mainly cocaine. Myanmar, a major producer of methaphetamine, also made a repeat appearance on the list.

The designations can result in significant cuts in U.S. aid but Bush spared both Bolivia and Venezuela from such penalties, citing a national interest waiver. Myanmar, also known as Burma, was not given a waiver but is already under numerous U.S. sanctions that bar all but humanitarian assistance.

Bush's findings came in the annual release of the State Department's roster of countries deemed to be major producers of or transit sites for illicit drugs. The same 20 nations that were on the list in 2007 made this year's list. The only change was the addition of Bolivia to the list of those not cooperating in the drug war.

The Bolivia and Venezuela determinations were made as Washington's relations with populist leaders in La Paz and Caracas fall to new lows. Both countries last week expelled the U.S. ambassadors, prompting tit-for-tat reciprocal expulsions of their envoys to the United States.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long been a thorn in the side of the Bush administration's Latin America policy but Bolivian President Evo Morales has recently moved to improve his anti-American credentials, accusing the United States of helping to foment widespread and worsening political unrest in his country.

Due to the security situation, the State Department has allowed nonessential personnel at its embassy in La Paz and the families of all diplomats there to leave the country and on Tuesday announced it was organizing at least two evacuation flights for Americans who want to depart. The Peace Corps has moved all its volunteers from Bolivia to Peru.

The State Department, however, denied that politics played any role in either the Bolivian or Venezuelan determinations.

"This was not hasty decision," said David Johnson, the State Department's point man for counter-narcotics, as he presented the findings. "Bolivia remains a major narcotics producing country and its official policies and actions have caused a significant deterioration in its cooperation with the United States."

He noted that Morales, a former coca growers' union leader, was encouraging farmers to boost production of the leaf which many Bolivians chew as a mild stimulant but is also the precursor for cocaine. There was a 14 percent increase in land used for coca cultivation last year increasing the potential cocaine yield from 115 to 120 metric tons, he said.

Johnson also noted that the Bolivian government had recently barred U.S. aid workers and drug enforcement agents from the major coca production area of Chapare area.

"These actions represent a retreat from Bolivia's international obligations to control cocaine trafficking," he told reporters.

Bolivia, the world's third-largest coca producer after Colombia, the biggest anti-drug partner of the U.S., and Peru, received some $125 million in aid from the United States in 2007, of which $55 million was for anti-narcotics program. That amount was reduced to just over $100 million in 2008.

Venezuela, has repeatedly shown itself to be unwilling or unable to keep its international counter-narcotics commitments, Johnson said, noting that Chavez's government has made the blacklist every year since 2004 and had refused to renew anti-drug cooperation accords with Washington.

"The Venezuelan government's continued inaction against a growing drug-trafficking problem within and through its borders is a matter of increasing concern in the United States," he said. "Despite Venezuelan assurances that seizures have increased, the amount of drugs bound for the United States and Europe continues to grow."

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